Sporcamuss Pugliesi con Crema Pasticcera e Miele — Cook

Ingredients

For the sfoglia
500 g puff pastry, rolled thin, cut into 16 squares of equal size
For the crema pasticcera
500 ml whole milk
120 g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
50 g plain flour
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
For frying
1 litre olive oil, Pugliese extra-virgin preferred; sufficient depth to submerge the pastry
To finish
30 g icing sugar, for immediate dusting at service

Method

1
Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C. Lay the puff pastry squares on a lined baking sheet and bake until very puffed and deep golden, then remove and cool completely on a rack. The squares must be fully cold and rigid before assembly, so the cream does not slacken and weep the moment it meets the warm pastry.
2
Prepare the crema pasticcera: whisk the egg yolks and sugar to a pale ribbon, then whisk in the flour. Bring the milk and vanilla pod to a bare simmer, remove the pod, and pour the hot milk over the yolk mixture in a steady stream, whisking constantly so the yolks temper gradually rather than scramble. Return the mixture to the pan over medium heat and stir continuously until the cream thickens decisively and pulls away from the sides of the pan — make it noticeably stiffer than for a standard tart filling, so it holds a firm, sliceable shape when cold rather than running the moment it meets hot oil. Transfer to a shallow tray, press clingfilm directly onto the surface to prevent a skin forming, and refrigerate until fully cold and set.
3
This is where the dish lives or dies. Immediately before frying — and not a moment sooner — place a thick, cold layer of pastry cream onto one pastry square and press a second square firmly on top to form a sandwich, so the cream stays dense and contained rather than liquefying into the oil or wicking moisture into the pastry. If the sandwich rests even briefly, the pastry draws moisture from the cream and the crunch is irretrievably lost.
4
Heat the olive oil in a deep, wide pan to 175 °C, verified with a thermometer. Lower each sporcamuss into the oil and submerge it immediately, so the heat reaches the cream at the centre before the outer pastry over-colours. Fry until the pastry blisters, opens at the layers, and the cream begins to caramelise visibly at the exposed edges and the surface is deeply golden, then lift and drain briefly.
5
Dust with icing sugar the instant the sporcamuss leaves the oil, before the surface cools. Serve immediately — on paper, standing up, in the Bari manner. The cream will escape. That is correct.